Book IV. HEDGE FENCES. 477 



to preclude the possibility of their penetrating it ; of course, their only chance of either 

 extending themselves, or procuring nourishment, is by spreading out between the surface 

 and the mound made by the earth taken out of the ditch, or by striking up into the 

 mound, where, though the soil will be sufficiently open to admit of this, the roots, in 

 place of finding an establishment in a situation friendly to their growth, will very often 

 be either starved or poisoned. :;, 



2978. With respect to the age at which hedge plants ought to be used, it is very common, 

 especially where young hedges are made with thorns, to plant them of one, two, or three 

 years old, seldom exceeding this last age. Plants of this description, when put into the 

 earth at a proper season of the year, upon land well prepared, if they are afterwards 

 carefully kept clean, and the earth soft and loose, by regular weeding and digging, 

 seldom fail to make good fences ; such young plants, however, are, it is observed, long 

 in a state of infancy, and require great nursing and the most complete protection to 

 bring them to perfection, and are liable to be either much hurt or totally destroyed by 

 many accidents that would produce little or no effect upon older and stronger plants. 

 Much time might be saved in the rearing of hedges, and the fences be much more perfect 

 and useful, if older plants were employed for that purpose. Three years old is certainly 

 the youngest that should be planted, and if they are even six or seven years old, so much 

 the better : the prevailing idea that plants of that age will not thrive if transplanted, is 

 totally unfounded. Thorns of six or seven years old, in place of being po thicker than 

 a common straw, will be at a medium more than an inch in circumference : we leave 

 those who are judges to determine how far a plant of this last description will be 

 superior to one of two years old, and how much sooner it will answer the purposes of a 

 fence. 



2979. Tn respect to the size of thorns or other hedge plants, it may be necessary to observe, that, when 

 the plants are once obtained, they should be separated into sorts, according to their size and apparent 

 strength, picking out the largest first, and so on downwards. This will be attended with several very 

 material advantages, which those who have made observations on the subject will very readily under- 

 stand. Plants of the same size and strength, when planted together, keep pace with each other ; no one 

 of them takes from the earth more than its own share of nourishment, of course the growth of the whole 

 is regular and uniform ; and the hedge, when arrived at a certain age, becomes a substantial efficient fence, 

 of an equal height throughout, and free from gaps : whereas, when no pains have been taken in assorting 

 the plants, and they are planted promiscuously, great and small, strong ana weak, the consequence is, that 

 the strongest plants very soon outgrow such as are weaker, and not only overtop them, but also deprive 

 them of tliat nourishment which they so much require ; as the hedge advances in age, the evil becomes 

 greater, innumerable gaps appearing throughout the whole line of the fence, and small stunted plants 

 interspersed with others remarkable for their strength and luxuriance. 



2980. This assorting of hedge plants has a farther advantage ; namely, that of putting it in the power of 

 the person who plants the hedge to put down the large, strong, healthy plants upon the poorest part of the 

 line of the fence, and to set such as are smaller and weaker upon the richer and more fertile parts. He 

 has it also in his power, by a more careful preparation of the soil, and bestowing a greater proportion of 

 manure upon the spaces where the small plants are set, to give them that nourishment and assistance 

 which they require, and which would very soon enable them to form a fence equal to the part occupied 

 by the strongest plants. 



2981. In regard to the dressing and pruning of hedge plants before they are put into 

 the earth, there is perhaps no part of the system of managing them, or forest trees, more 

 hurtful and defective than that now pursued in the common nurseries. It is a very 

 common practice with nurserymen, in the spring, when they wish to clear their ground 

 for other purposes, to take up great quantities of thorns and other hedge plants, and 

 after pruning the tops, and cutting off nearly the whole of the roots, to tie them up in 

 bundles, and lay these bundles in heaps till they are called for. In this mutilated state 

 they often remain for many weeks, with the mangled roots naked and unprotected, 

 exposed to every inclemency of the weather, before they are sold. In place of this 

 treatment, the defects of which are so obvious, and the consequences resulting from it so 

 hurtful, no hedge plants should be lifted out of the nursery-ground till the day, or at 

 most a few days, before that on which they are to be replanted ; and in place of the severe 

 pruning and dressing already mentioned, every root, even to the smallest fibre, should be 

 carefully preserved, and the use of the knife confined entirely to the necessary curtailing 

 of the tops. Where this care is taken, and the plants are put into the ground at a pro- 

 per season, they will suffer no kind of check, and when the spring arrives will grow 

 luxuriantly and with vigour. 



2982. In the after-management of the hedge, complete weeding, loosening, and laying 

 new earth to the roots, for the first three or four years, are indispensable requisites : for what- 

 ever pains may have been previously taken in dunging and summer-fallowing the soil, 

 unless it be properly attended to and kept clean afterwards, this dunging and summer- 

 fallow, in place of being useful, will prove hurtful to the fence ; as the manure and 

 tillage, by enriching and opening the soil, will encourage and promote the growth 

 of weeds ; which, under such peculiarly fortunate circumstances, will become so luxuriant 

 as either to destroy the hedge, or materially injure its growth, unless they be kept down 

 by frequent and complete cleanings. In loosening the earth about the roots of hedges, 

 whether old or young, it will be of advantage, if there is soil enough to lay up a few 

 inches of it to the roots ; this frequently done, encourages them to push out branches near 



